Designing Experiments and Games of Chance: The Unconventional Science of Blaise Pascal

Shea, William R., 2003, xii + 354pp, illus., cloth bound and jacketed or paperback   During his comparatively brief life (he died at age 39, the age Mozart was to die) Blaise Pascal devoted his unusual talents to mathematics, physics, and religion. His religious views are still widely discussed, and the general interest in this aspect of his life may be responsible for the fact that his mathematical and scientific achievements are less known. Those who are familiar with his Pensées, which are fragments of an intended Apology for Christianity, have had little opportunity of acquiring a just appreciation of the originality of his thought in physics and probability theory. This book fills this gap by describing Pascal’s work in a way that is accessible to anyone interested in his contribution to modern science and his attempt to tame Lady Luck. The words unconventional science in the subtitle of the book are meant as a reminder of the radically different way of looking at nature that wa